Movement is an important component for a recovery, and/or a continued vitality regiment for patients recovering in hospitals, nursing home residents, and convalescents in private and group homes. However, due to various ailments and age-related issues, such people may often be confined to beds, for a significant portion of any recovery or convalescing period. While so bedridden, such persons are often connected to IV systems, catheters, and other medical and/or monitoring devices, which further hamper patient mobility.
To recover from most illnesses as quickly as possible, and it is beneficial for these patients to engage in some sort of walking, regardless of the pace. Additionally, such regular movement tends to prevent pooling and/or unnecessary accumulation of fluids in the body. Because of their physical condition, lack of confidence, and all of the attached medical devices, it is difficult to transport a patient to another location, such as a rehabilitation center, where they can engage in such a mild form of exercise in a controlled environment. The patient may also walk in a room or down the hall, for example, but again, due to the generally poor physical condition of the patient and the medical devices, such venturing may be dangerous and unmotivating. Any such form of exercise requires significant medical staff time and energy in lending assistance as well as monitoring the activities.
It also is difficult, if not impossible to bring exercise equipment to the patient, as the rooms are typically small, and filled with many obstacles. For example, many hospital rooms and nursing home rooms are at least double occupancy, and crowded with beds and multiple sets of equipment. The space between beds may be only a few feet wide. Additionally, state of the art treadmills are not a viable solution for a convalescing patient needing only to engage in minor walking, as such treadmills are geared for exercise and heart rate increase such that they typically have a minimum speed which is too fast. Further, such treadmills cannot start out gradually enough, and thus create a dangerous situation for the convalescing patient.
Treadmills without a motive force are likewise not a viable option, as they either provide too little resistance, giving the user a “slippery” feel, or they provide too much resistance requiring the user to exert a force to get them started. Often, the force exerted to get the belt to move is converted to momentum that makes the speed of the belt unpredictable.
Another reason a state of the art treadmill is inappropriate is that they display output that is either meaningless or inappropriate for a convalescing person. For example, a state of the art treadmill will output speed in miles per hour (mph) and distances in fractions of a mile. A convalescing patient and/or the medical practitioner responsible for their recovery must measure progress in smaller increments.